Community Connections: Eureka’s new police chief

In honor of Eureka’s new police chief, here’s a classic “Community Connections” column focusing on former captain and current Eureka Police Chief Steve Watson:

Captain Steve Watson is responsible for Service Area 1, which primarily consists of Eureka’s core commercial and industrial districts.

The oldest of three, Watson was born and raised in Fortuna and attended Christian Life High School. His family owned and operated a well-respected general construction business, Watson Construction and Development. It was his parents, Watson said, that helped him develop a strong foundation of values.

“My parents example set an impact that has guided my entire life,” Watson said. “They instilled hard work, diligence and my mom’s generosity, she was the most giving and selfless person I ever met in my life.”

With the values instilled in him by his parents, Watson left home at 18 to join the Army.

Watson was a tank crewmember and had a two-year enlistment. He returned home afterward to help out with the family business as his dad had developed a serious illness.

When his father recovered, Watson left to attend Capital Bible College in Sacramento, before transferring to Bethany University in Scotts Valley.

While attending college, Watson also joined the Army Reserve (where he served in a military police company) and held several other jobs, which included construction. He also found meaning working with young people for a few years.

“I worked in a group home for boys as an independent living program specialist,” Watson said, “We’d teach them basic life living skills, but also have some fun and do things like play video games with them.”

Watson enjoyed making a difference in his community through working with youth. He even worked as a part-time youth director at a church. This seemed to be the career path that Watson was determined to follow, as he received a bachelor’s degree in church leadership, as well as his teaching credential, which he still possesses today.

However, after some time student teaching and serving as a long-term substitute teacher, Watson found himself reconsidering his career path.

“I was feeling lost at the time. I realized that teaching and ministry weren’t for me,” Watson said. “It was meaningful, but something was missing.”

Advertisement

Watson would find what he was looking for after his stint in the Army Reserve was over — in the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.

“As soon as I joined the Sheriff’s Office, I realized I found my career and my passion and I never looked back,” he said.

Having been in the military, the academy came relatively easy to Watson. He was his classes “top gun” and ranked No. 2 overall academically.

Watson worked for seven years as sheriff’s deputy, in which time he served as a patrol officer, school resource officer, in addition to serving a year in court security as a bailiff and a short summer tour as coast patrol duty. Watson also was on the SWAT team and a field-training officer.

It was during this time as a deputy sheriff that Watson walked into a sporting goods store and met his ideal romantic partner. The only problem was that she had just quit her job at the store and was leaving in six days to join the Air Force.

Watson invited her for a ride along and, despite her impending departure, they began to forge a strong bond and fall for each other.

“I had met the perfect person at the wrong time,” he said. “She was going to leave in six days — out of my life forever.”

After spending their last remaining days together, Watson drove her to the Military Entrance Processing Station in Oakland to say goodbye.

“We were on our way to drop her off to leave for the military,” Watson said. “I said, ‘I bet you if I asked you to marry me, you’d say yes.’ It was totally out of character for me and half-joking we agreed to flip a coin and neither of us would back down from the bet.”

That coin flip produced a marriage that is currently on its 17th year.

After their first child was born, Watson and his wife decided to relocate to Humboldt County. He looked online and saw that the Eureka Police Department was hiring.

“I heard that EPD was a premiere agency up here,” Watson said, “so I applied and was accepted and hired in May of 2005.”

Over the next nine years, Watson was crossed trained and served in a variety of roles including patrol officer, field training officer and a member of the gang task force just to name a few. Watson also started an in-house team called the Crime Suppression Unit and supervised the department’s Problem Oriented Policing Unit (POP) for three years.

He was promoted to sergeant in 2007 and to captain in 2014.

Watson was excited for the opportunity to lead at a higher level and serve the community and department he’s committed his career to.

“Sometimes, I miss the hands on in the field, and the camaraderie of working with a team,” he said, “but on the other side of that, I enjoy having a voice at the table to help guide the department’s mission and future and the direction we’re going.”

Watson takes great pride in being a part of the Eureka Police Department and being able to contribute not just to policing, but to the overall community in his role.

“You learn as a rookie early on, you cannot change the whole world, you’re never going to solve all the problems in your city or county,” Watson said, “but you can make a difference in individual lives and situations every day. The cops can’t do it alone. We can’t arrest our way out of problems. We truly need the positive relationships and partnerships with the community and the people that we serve, working together to make our city a better and safer place to live, work and play. That keeps me going and makes this job meaningful and worth it.”

Whether it was teaching, working directly with youth or serving his country in the military, Watson has spent his entire life looking to serve and the opportunity to dedicate his life to doing something meaningful, which he has found in his role in our community as police captain.

“It’s more than just a job, it’s a profession and a calling,” Watson said, “despite the stress at times and frustrations that can come, there’s not a day that goes by that I’m not proud in a good way of what we do here and I feel like what we do has meaning.”

Brian S. Millett is a project manager for the city of Eureka, and can be reached at bmillett@ci.eureka.ca.gov.